The Day We’ve All Been Waiting For

September 26, 2016

Tonight was the media event of the political season. After more hype than I can ever recall for a political debate (honestly, clocks permanently located in the lower third, excitedly counting down to the moment the debate starts… a week away; promotion ads worthy of a boxing championship; unending, repetitive analysis of what each candidate would say and do… thank you media, who thrive on record breaking audiences, who will keep that playing field as even as possible through false equivalencies, and whose goal it is to keep us panting on the edge of our seats, eyes glued to their coverage), we had our first face-off between the two major party candidates for president of the United States.

Cutting to the chase, it was an embarrassing display of ignorance and ridiculously rude, immature behavior on the part of Trump, but an immensely satisfying knock out delivered by the ever-prepared, if calculated, Hillary. After a few weeks of growing despair as the gap narrowed to a statistical and improbable tie, and wondering what was going to become of our threadbare democracy if Trump should pull out a win–which suddenly seemed a real and horrifying possibility–the victory was sweet.

But man… the weeks leading up have been brutal!

I have been watching Trump’s momentum build in stunned horror. I actually cried in frustration, feeling hopelessly defeated, as I drove down to PV last week, feeling like this country is on its way to electing the most unqualified, ill-suited person ever to serve as president. A man entirely committed to self service against a woman who’s committed her entire life to public service. A man who says, among a firehose of other unforgivable things, “I like money. I’m very greedy. I’m a greedy person. I shouldn’t tell you that, I’m a greedy — I’ve always been greedy. I love money, right?”

Crass, vulgar and utterly classless.

And until the debate tonight, mind boggling as it is, Trump had all the mo.

Well… tonight I could breathe again. Her qualifications for the office were in full display — command of facts, experience, temperament, a role model for our kids. He just thrashed, sniffed, bullied, lied and couldn’t go a full two minutes on any policy question, lacking depth and understanding of anything. He just yelled and blustered his way through 90 minutes. And then, afterward, after completely embarrassing himself and the republican party, complained the mic didn’t work, and threatened to bring to the next debate a discussion of Hillary’s husband’s infidelities decades ago (he of the multiple affairs, marriages and demeaning beauty pageants).

At least that was my reaction. Will see how the polls go. I’m definitely on the edge of my seat for that.

Me

About This Blog

I launched this blog in October of 2008 with a goal to "write" -- to refine technique, experiment with different styles, voices.. but I only posted sporadically. No experimenting was had.
So, for the entire 2011 year, I tried a different approach: I wrote every day using a "photo-a-day" device to prompt daily writing. It worked, but it became more of a "photo and daily commentary" kind of journal, and was a lot less about developing writing technique. Still no experimenting was had. I felt bad about this. Like I was cheating.
But I love the photos and commentary. It has been a fun way to document life, the seasons, my family, and who doesn't want one of those?
I took a break in 2012 and 2013... somewhat unintentionally... but now I'm going to return to a daily photo blog, this time unapologetically. Life of Wry is now a journally thing. No cutting edge writing, no experimentation, no risk taking, no vulnerability, just easy peasy breezy writing about what's going on in my and my family's life. And photos, lots of photos.
And that's that.
Thanks for stopping by.